Social Psychology: Chapter 2: The Self In A Social World

Introspection

The process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives

self-handicapping

- protecting one's self-image with behaviours that create a handy excuse for later failure. Sometimes people sabotage their chances for success by creating impediments that make success less likely. When self-image is tied up with performance, it can be more self-deflating to try hard and fail than to procrastinate and have a ready excuse. If we fail while working under a handicap, we can cling to a sense of competence; if we succeed under such conditions, it can only boost our self-image. Handicaps protect both self-esteem and public image by allowing us to attribute failures to something temporary or external ("I was feeling sick"; "I was out too late the night before") rather than to lack of talent or ability.

Self-control

An attempt to change the way you would otherwise think, feel, or behave. According to Baumeister, self-control resembles a muscle

Looking Glass Self

An image of yourself based on what you believe others think of you

Define the self-serving bias.

Contrary to the presumption that most people suffer from feelings of inferiority, researchers consistently find that most people exhibit a self-serving bias. In experiments and everyday life, we often take credit for successes while blaming failures on the situation. Questing for self-knowledge, we're motivated to assess our competence (Dunning, 1995). Questing for self-confirmation, we're motivated to verify our self-conceptions (Sanitioso et al., 1990; Swann, 1996, 1997). Questing for self-affirmation, we're especially motivated to enhance our self-image (Sedikides, 1993). Self-esteem motivation helps power self-serving bias.

independent self

Defined primarily in terms of internal attributes,which reside inside the person such as abilities, motives, personality traits, competence etc. More autonomous, separate and self contained, one gives priority to personal goals instead of group goals. Personal achievement matters more.

TEDTALKS: 2. Her findings suggest that our bodies can change our minds (we are influenced by our own nonverbals)

Fake it till you become it.

Secure self-esteem

Have both High implicit and explicit self-esteem

Defensive high self-esteem

High Explicit self-esteem and love implicit self-esteem - report feeling good about themselves but on an automatic level they feel bad about themself

Measured Implicit Self-Esteem

Implicit Association Test - This measures implicit self-esteem which highly efficient evaluations of self that occur unintentionally and outside of awareness

TEDTALKS: a. In her first study what effect did body posture have on gambling, testosterone (dominance hormone), and cortisol (stress hormone)

In a span of 2 minutes: Power poses - 86% will gamble (higher risk tolerance). - 20% increase in testosterone levels - 25% decrease in cortisol levels Low Power poses - 60% will gamble (lower risk tolerance) - 10% decrease in testosterone levels - 15% increase in cortisol levels

TEDTALKS:b. In her second study what effect did body posture have on job interview performance

In a span of 2 minutes: Power poses - More likely to be hired - More highly rated

Jordan, Spencer, Zanna, Hoshino-Browne, & Correll (2003)

Measured explicit and implicit self-esteem as well as examined the relationship with Narcisism. Found participants with defensive self-esteem to be high in narcisism.

Rosenberg Scale

Measures Explicit Self- Esteem - the conscious and deliberately reasoned evaluations of self

IAT Scale

Measures Implicit Self- Esteem - highly efficient evaluations of self that occur unintentionally and outside of awareness

interdependent self

Ones own identity is defined in respects to a particular type of social relationships. The role of others is a part of self definition. Manifested in group memberships and interconnectedness and gives priorities to group goals. One has a greater sense of belonging. One strives to harmonize and support one's community and being responsible is more important that doing one's own thing. eg. I am African

Discuss the self in action.

Our sense of self helps organize our thoughts and actions. Our ability to effortfully regulate our behaviour, or willpower, works similarly to muscular strength. It can be exhausted by use in the short term, but can also be strengthened by regular exercise. Our ability to effortfully regulate our behaviour, or willpower, works similarly to muscular strength. It can be exhausted by use in the short term, but can also be strengthened by regular exercise. People who believe in their own competence and effectiveness cope better and achieve more than those who have learned a helpless, pessimistic outlook.

TEDTALKS: What are power postures? )

Power postures are open and wide.

TEDTALKS: And powerless postures?

Powerless postures are closed up and withdrawn.

Measured Explicit Self-Esteem

Rosenberg Rating Scale used for measuring explicit self-esteem which is the conscious and deliberately reasoned evaluations of self

Describe self-presentation

SELF-PRESENTATION: LOOKING GOOD TO OTHERS - he act of expressing yourself and behaving in ways designed to create a favourable impression or an impression that corresponds to your ideals. Humans seem motivated not only to perceive themselves in self-enhancing ways but also to present themselves favourably to others.

Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

Schachter & Singer (1962) The idea that emotional experience is the result of a two-step self-perception process in which people first experience physiological arousal and then seek an appropriate (sometimes erroneous) explanation for it.

impression management.

Self-serving bias, false modesty, and self-handicapping reveal the depth of our concern for self-image. To varying degrees, we are continually managing the impressions we create. Whether we wish to impress, to intimidate, or to seem helpless, we are social animals, playing to an audience

Self-esteem.

Sense of Self Worth. Self-esteem thus depends on whether or not we believe we have traits that make us attractive to others, and not necessarily on the traits that we say we value most.a person's overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth.

TEDTALKS: What are the two main studies that she run? http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are

Study a) The effect of non-verbals (posture) on testosterone and cortisol levels. (Physiological Changes). b) The effect on non-verbals (posture) on job interview performance.

Social Comparison Theory

The idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people

Lockwood & Kunda (1997)

They did a study on first and final year students, concluded that when making social comparisons, upward social comparisons are inspirational if they seem attainable.

Self-concept

Who am I? What we know and believe about ourselves.

temporal comparison

a comparison between how the self is viewed now and how the self was viewed in the past or how the self is expected to be viewed in the future.

self-serving attributions

a form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to yourself and negative outcomes to other factors.

self-efficacy

a sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, which is one's sense of self-worth.

self-monitoring

being attuned to the way you present yourself in social situations and adjusting your performance to create the desired impression. With regard to an external audience, those who score high on a scale of self-monitoring adjust their behaviour to each situation, whereas those low in self-monitoring may do so little social adjusting that they seem insensitive.

self-schema

beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information.

Upward Social Comparisons

comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are on a particular trait or ability, can inspire us (sometimes...)

Downward Social Comparisons

comparing ourselves to people who are worse than we are on a particular trait or ability, can make us feel better.

dual attitudes system

differing implicit (automatic) and explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same object. Verbalized explicit attitudes may change with education and persuasion; implicit attitudes change slowly, with practice that forms new habits.

social comparison

evaluating your own abilities and opinions by comparing yourself to others.

group-serving bias

explaining away out-group members' positive behaviours; also attributing negative behaviours to their dispositions (while excusing such behaviour by one's own group).

collectivism

giving priority to the goals of one's groups (often one's extended family or work group) and defining one's identity accordingly.

learned helplessness

he hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or animal perceives no control over repeated bad events.

possible selves

images of what we dream of or dread becoming in the future.

impact bias

overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events.

terror management theory

proposes that people exhibit self-protective emotional and cognitive responses when confronted with reminders of their morality

social identity

the "we" aspect of our self-concept. The part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships. Examples: "I am Australian." "I am Catholic."

self-awareness

the act of thinking about ourselves

defensive pessimism

the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one's anxiety to motivate effective action.

spotlight effect

the belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are.

individualism

the concept of giving priority to one's goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identification.

self-control

the exertion of control over the self by the self. An attempt to change the way you would otherwise think, feel or behave.

locus of control

the extent to which people perceive outcomes as internally controllable by their own efforts or as externally controlled by chance or outside forces.

immune neglect

the human tendency to underestimate the speed and the strength of the "psychological immune system," which enables emotional recovery and resilience after bad things happen.

illusion of transparency

the illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others

false consensus effect

the tendency to overestimate the commonality of one's opinions and one's undesirable or unsuccessful behaviours.

self-serving bias

the tendency to perceive yourself favourably.

planning fallacy

the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task.

false uniqueness effect

the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's abilities and one's desirable or successful behaviours.